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Feb. 15, 2002 Early Child Development-the Role of Child Care and Television Rebecca Cataldi, CRN staff

On February 8, 2002, at Benesse Corporation's Tokyo Head Office, Dr. Sarah L. Friedman and Dr. Aletha C. Huston, researchers from the United States, delivered presentations on the findings of their studies on different issues in child development. Dr. Friedman's research, entitled "Early Child Care and Children's Development Prior to School Entry" was conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in the US. The aim of this study was to understand the effects of child care on children, focusing on quality, quantity, and type of care as variables. Dr. Huston's study, "Effects of Early Childhood Media Use" was conducted in collaboration with her husband, Dr. John C. Wright, through the Center for Research on Interactive Technology, Television and Children (CRITC) at the University of Texas at Austin. Its goal was to study television viewing by children at early ages and its effect on children's cognitive abilities and attention spans. A discussion session followed the presentations, involving audience members, Dr. Friedman, Dr. Huston, and CRN director Dr. Noburu Kobayashi. The relevance of Dr. Friedman's research is demonstrated by the fact that child care is an ever-growing component of children's experiences. "Child care" in this study refers to what has been called "nonmaternal" care, care provided by someone who is not a parent in a child care center or in the home. Particularly as the number of working mothers increases, more and more parents are choosing some degree of child care for their children. This study explored the questions of whether the effects of child care are positive or negative for children and whether these effects are meaningful relative to the effects of other sources of influence on children's development. Looking at families from a variety of social backgrounds across the United States, and comparing differences in child care quality, quantity, and type, the study found that there is indeed a correlation between child care and a child's cognitive development and social behavior. For example, children who received higher quality child care displayed better pre-academic and language skills. Children who had more experience in child care centers also displayed better language and memory skills. However, children who had larger amounts of child care evidenced more behavioral problems. Thus, early child care was found to be associated with potential benefits as well as potential risks to a child's development. This study can be a resource that parents may reflect on when deciding how to provide care for their children. The study's findings would seem to suggest that it would be beneficial for parents not to automatically reject nor rely exclusively on child care, but to consider its potential risks and benefits for a child's cognitive and social development and to decide what sort of balance, if any, between child care and parenting they feel is appropriate for their child. That child care and parenting appear to strengthen different areas of a child's development seems to indicate that these different influences could perhaps complement each other to the betterment of the child. This could lead us to reflect on the possible benefit of incorporating varied influences in other areas of a child's life-for example, education styles, types of play, and methods of communication. Various influences may each have something to add to a child's development. It is important that parents, who are ultimately responsible for their children's upbringing, play an active role in deciding what influences their children should be exposed to. The study also found that the difference in cognitive performance between children who received high-quality parenting and those who received low-quality parenting was greater than the difference in cognitive performance between children who received high-quality child care and those who received low-quality child care. Though the reverse was true for the effect on behavior problems, this emphasizes the tremendously important role of parents in their children's care and development and the importance of parents' presence and involvement in their children's lives. Dr. Huston's study explored another influence that has significant potential for both positive and negative impacts on children's development-television. Her study addressed the much-debated questions of if and how television viewing affects children's early development and whether effects are positive or negative. Children from low-income families, chosen because they may be likely to watch television more often and may be more likely to have trouble when entering school, were studied in two areas of the United States. The children's television-viewing habits in the early years of ages three to five were observed and tests were given to assess the children's abilities in areas such as school readiness, reading, and math. The children's academic performance was again evaluated at the later ages of 15-19 years. The study found that children who viewed educational and informative children's programs at early ages exhibited greater school readiness and skills in areas such as reading and math, which increased until about the age of five. They did better in high school, had a better self-concept, and attributed more value to achievement in areas such as math and science. The study also found that television viewing did not lower children's attention spans or dissuade them from doing things that require greater and longer concentration, such as reading books. Rather, children who watched the educational American show "Sesame Street", for example, read more books and did better in school than those who did not watch. Thus, the study concluded that television does not lower children's attention spans and that educational television can teach cognitive skills and contribute to creativity in children. Dr. Huston expressed the belief that television viewing is an active process-that children think as they watch and make judgments about what to watch and what to pay attention to. She also especially stressed that the content of television is what is critical, that it is not the medium of television that affects the child but the message of its programs. Through the message, television viewing can have a positive or a negative effect on children. Television viewing, Dr. Huston says, can enrich lives. People need not be forced to make an exclusive choice between television or something else; rather, television can be part of an enriched life. In the same way, parents need not feel forced to exclusively reject or embrace "child care", but such care may be part of a variety of influences contributing to a child's development. Child care, says Dr. Friedman, "is a human invention, an invention of human creativity and resourcefulness . . . It is not in and of itself either good or bad." The same can be said of television. As Dr. Kobayashi emphasized in his closing remarks, phenomena such as child care and television are not of themselves good or bad-what is important, and what can negatively or positively affect children, is how these phenomena are used, what we as humans do with them. Parents have a tremendously important role to play in this process, and their judgment and involvement in their children's lives is fundamental to children's development. Yet all of society has a role to play and a responsibility in contributing to the positive development of children, and thus to a positive future for the world. Readers interested in learning more about these studies are invited to visit http://public.rti.org/secc (NICHD's website) and http://www.utex.edu/research/critic (CRITC's website).

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